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As a child, I was always fascinated by the bright, blue sky. I still love to look up to the sky. Watch the clouds pass by. It calms me. [ READ: How we think about the choices we make ] Some nights, I take a walk around outside just to see the inky dark sky. The night sky is lit up with stars that glitter like jewels. The luminous sky makes me feel that I am sparkling too - that when the stars shine down on you, some of their sparkle rubs off into you too. Like Ishmael Beah writes in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,"In the sky, there are always answers and explanations for everything: every pain, every suffering, joy and confusion." [ DO READ: Strong is the NEW Beautiful ]

This snapshot just took my breath away after I clicked it. Even in my wildest dreams, I never expected to visit the Blue Mountains, in Australia. The name "Blue Mountains" comes to these mountains aptly because of the oil exuded by the eucalyptus trees surrounding it across the deep valle…

Independence Day packs in an exciting, festive feel. You feel ready to look back at history with gratitude and look to
the present with hope. Life’s always on a great roll and here’s my yummy tri
color lunch - which I absolutely enjoyed in the office canteen.

Ah, and that reminds me of a sweet Japanese story called ‘The
Rolling Rice Cakes.’ It is about an old man and his wife. She packs delicious
rice cakes in his lunchbox when he goes to cut firewood in the forest. One day, one of the rice cake rolls down into a hole in the
ground! From the beneath the ground, he hears tiny voices sing: "Rice cakes, rice cakes, Nice, fat rice cakes, Rolling, rolling, rolling – down!” He loves the beautiful song and rolls down all the rice
cakes to the tiny voices. Unexpectedly, he tumbles into the hole too, where he
is greeted by hundreds of field mice. They had eaten all his rice cakes and
thanked him. As a return gift, they give him a small bag of rice. The Old Man goes home
with the small bag of his w…

How many happy faces do you see around you every day? Think about it. Now, look to yourself. What makes you happy? What makes you sad? If you look at the things that make you happy, are they possessions, objects, people, milestones? Figure out what makes you happy and unhappy. For me, books, music and traveling make me feel on top of the world. Do you become easily attached to people and to things? Do you feel crushed or hurt when all your sincere effort in relationships does not bring you an iota of happiness? You feel like you are the one who is always trying but no one's there when you really need some one? If any of this makes sense to you, trust me: I know how you feel. Eating that tub of chocolate ice cream won't help. I've tried that:)) [Do read: It's the funny heart-to-heart conversations that make people happy]

Okay, lets get to business, shall we? What works? Here are some practical actions that work for me: 1. Pray your heart out. 2. Listen to soothing music. Make…

When you go through a break up, you ask tough questions to yourself. [READ: Being Strong is the New Beautiful] British writer Barbara Pym asks in a note
to herself after a breakup: "What
is the heart?A
damp cave with things growing in it, mysterious secret plants of love or
whatever you like. Or a dusty lumber room full of junk. Or a neat orderly place
like a desk with a place for everything and everything in its place. Something
might be starting now that would linger on through many years — dying sometimes
and then coming back again, like a twinge of rheumatism in the winter, so that
you suddenly felt it in your knee when you were nearing the top of a long
flight of stairs. A
Great Love that was unrequited might well be like that."

In today's world where picture perfect family pics are uploaded every few minutes on Facebook, it's hard not to feel the "social pressure" to feel that you fit your life, almost picture perfect, like that of your friends. I have seen…

A three day trip to Kerala is all it took for me to come back
with ten Malayalam books! My mother stared at the stack of books and asked, “You will
read all these books?” “Of course, but these aren’t enough, I need to read more....”
was my reply. I
understood her worry. She didn’t want me to pay for
excess baggage. Bold and Beautiful: Reading books from regional languagesWomen’s
writing in regional languages is clearer than a mirror that reflects nudity. These writings bring us glimpses
of a place and a person – be it the way words are said, the daily life and
customs pan out, the nuances of a place and its inhabitants.

[Image: Unsplash] For example, Madhavikutty (or Kamala Das, author of My story,
as you probably know) is a writer whose writings in Malayalam are a must-read.
When I read the English translations of her books, I feel the gaps acutely and
the helplessness that comes with the understanding that my mother tongue is so
rich and intricate that English cannot possibly hold justic…